We’ve all done it — you get a call that your daughter is sick and you have to pick her up from school. Now you’re making a mad dash to email yourself Excel spreadsheets so you can at home for the rest of the afternoon.

Microsoft Office 2010, set for release next year, hasn’t gone public yet. Only those invited to participate in the invitation-only Technical Preview (like us!) have gotten a sneak peek at the software in its earliest stages. But today, Microsoft announced its plan to partner Office 2010 with web-based Office applications – referred to as Office Web Apps.

Office Web Apps will allow you to work with documents online through Microsoft Live, giving you more flexibility to work on-the-run. Microsoft also revealed that businesses will be able to subscribe to Office Web Apps through volume licensing.

Microsoft points to the rising number of telecommuters and mobile phone users as the motivation behind their decision to take Microsoft Office to the web. For more details, read today’s interview with Microsoft Office Services director of marketing, Michael Schultz.

Filed under: Special Feature